By Kingston Land Trust, on April 19th, 2012%
The Kingston Land Trust Welcomes its Newest Board Director Renno Budziak of the Town of Ulster. Mr. Budziak’s involvement and expertise is a step in representing the Town of Ulster in the Kingston Land Trust’s efforts to protect and preserve land in their mission area.
Kingston, NY– The Kingston Land Trust is proud to announce the addition of Renno Budziak of the Town of Ulster to their Board of Directors. Mr. Budziak immigrated to this country with his parents and two older brothers in 1952 and settled and grew up in Newburgh, N.Y. Like his brothers, he pursued an Engineering career and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Trine University. He worked on an MBA degree with a concentration on New Product Venture Management at Syracuse University. He was hired as a new product design engineer by Ingersoll-Rand and as a result of a productive and successful design career, he became Manager of Engineering and was responsible for all Engineering related aspects and functions. He was issued a number of U.S. and international patents associated with his new product designs. After a seventeen year career with Ingersoll-Rand, he was recruited by Huck International where he was Vice President of Engineering. He is now enjoying an active retirement.
Beyond his career oriented responsibilities, Renno was and continues to be involved with a number of community related activities, some of which include: Former Board member of Sayre-Athens, Pa. Joint Sewer Authority; Former Board Chairman of Junior Achievement, an operational business simulation for high school students; Founding member and former Co-President of Rondout Rowing Club; Former member and Chairman of the Town of Ulster Planning Board; Former member of the Town of Ulster Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee; Current member of the Ulster County Planning Board and member of its Executive Committee and Task Force member of the Walkill Valley Rail Trail.
As the newest Board Director of the Kingston Land Trust, Renno is looking forward to collaboratively work with the Board in achieving the objectives of its stated mission and vision and thus through its actions, endeavor to improve the quality of life in our regional community.
For more information, please contact Rebecca Martin, Executive Director at 845/877-5263 or email kingstonlandtrust.org
###
By Kingston Land Trust, on February 27th, 2012%
 The stellar Board of Directors at the Kingston Land Trust. (L-R) Tim Weidemann, Gregg Swanzey, Andi Turco-Levin, Beth Roessler, Scarlet Duba, Steve Noble, Barbara Epstein, Kevin McEvoy, Brad Will and Matt Gillis.
The Kingston Land Trust Board of Directors met today to walk their properties and view their other projects as well as to have a relaxing afternoon together.
Here, the group looks closely at their parcel on Yoemans Street in historic Ponckhockie.
We were conveyed this lot by the City of Kingston in 2010 with hopes of working with the neighbors in the Ponckhockie section to create a small garden at the south end of the parcel that is mostly level and receives sunlight. The north end that connects to Yeomans Street has steep slopes, difficult terrain, is shaded and covered with poison ivy. The lot is a demapped street once connecting Yeomans Street to East Union St. The East Union frontage was conveyed by the City sometime ago so the parcel has only frontage on Yeomans Street. At the time of the conveyance we were made aware of an underground drainage easement to be retained by the City referred to as Tunnel Street. The demapped street appears on 1854 map for George North and Walter B. Crane who owned and subdivided the area at that time and had grading of slopes performed including the grading of the Revolutionary militia battleworks believed to have been located in this area which is discussed in Schoonmakers’s History of Kingston.
Originally it was thought that this steep north section of the parcel might have been the east slope of the Revolutionary battleworks site where the local Ulster County militia was stationed in October 16, 1777 when the British arrived to burn Kingston. Besides Schoonmakers’s History of Kingston, the battleworks have been discussed with a drawing depicting the general area in 1849 prior to North & Crane’s grading in Lossing’s Fieldbook of the Revolution and have been the subject of discussions with City Historian Ed Ford and military historian Col. James Johnson. As part of a separate National Historic Register nomination concerning another site in Ponckhockie, I reviewed and documented possible and known roads in 1777 and possible locations of the militia battleworks.
 KLT Executive Director Rebecca Martin at the South Pine Street City Farm in Kingston. Photo by Andi Turco-Levin After taking title, our executive director Rebecca Martin inspected the site, met the adjoining neighbors and was made aware by them of the significance of Tunnel Street. While there may be Revolutionary significance yet to be determined, the name Tunnel Street refers to a Tunnel entrance located on the site now sealed shut which leads into the former Newark Lime & Cement Company quarries in nearby Hasbrouck Park.
Kevin McEvoy, Vice Chair – The Kingston Land Trust
By Kingston Land Trust, on February 21st, 2012%
The Kingston Land Trust is thrilled to announce and congratulate Board Director and Chair of the Kingston Land Trust Rail Trail Committee Gregg Swanzey who is now the City of Kingston’s new Director of Economic Development and Strategic Partnerships.
Gregg, who lives in Kingston’s Rondout, spent years at sea aboard sailing research and education ships including a Humpback whale research program aboard a barkentine in Arctic waters off Greenland and as captain for a Soviet-American cultural exchange transAtlantic from Leningrad to New York via Iceland and Newfoundland. He logged tens of thousands of miles at sea and now still regularly finds his way out onto tidal waters in a kayak launched from the docks at the Strand.
Gregg’s background includes grants management and corporate relations for Mohonk Preserve, Executive Director for a gubernatorially appointed commission in Massachusetts, and Executive Director for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. He has served as advisor to The Boston Foundation, Massachusetts Environmental Trust, and the Community Foundation of Southeastern Massachusetts and has extensive background in maritime preservation, education, and management of public and private organizations. Today, he serves on the Kingston Conservation Advisory Council, Complete Streets Advisory Council, and the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee.
Gregg holds an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and an MBA from UMASS Dartmouth.
It is a privilege to work with Gregg who has helped the Kingston Land Trust secure grants working towards a Midtown Hub Rail Trail system from the Land Trust Alliance, PTNY (Parks & Trails NY), the Hudson Valley Greenway, National Park Service and CDBG (Community Development Block Grant).
The City of Kingston is fortunate to have this Kingston resident at their service in this way, and we expect to see great things in the future with his expertise.
* In Today’s Daily Freeman: Kingston Mayor Shayne Gallo names new head of Economic Development.
|
Your contribution sustains our work.
|
